Loot Anime February 2016 Subscription Box Review & Coupons: HAUNTED

Loot Anime is a monthly subscription box from Loot Crate, just for Anime and Manga fans! Every month you’ll get $60 worth of figures, collectibles, manga, apparel, accessories and more.

This month’s box takes us on a haunted voyage via a handful of animes that dabble in the realm of darker storylines. Hug your teddy bear a little tighter and open Loot Anime’s February box: Haunted!

Poster artwork by LucidSky

The poster art featured in this box is by talented Deviant artist, LucidSky, and follows more of a manga format. The artist depicts Loot’s heroine as she tiptoes through a spooky-looking house and discovers that turning one’s back on a mirror in such a place isn’t the best of ideas.

Everything in the February 2016 HAUNTED crate!

RWBY shirt

RWBY (pronounced ‘Ruby’) is an American animated web series from the mind of the late Monty Oum, and made for Rooster Teeth Productions. The series is set within the bleak world of Remnant where humanity faces dark monsters known as the Creatures of Grimm. Resourceful humankind, however, fights back against them with the discovery and use of a substance called Dust.   This element is used to power abilities and weapons and those who use it to battle the Grimm are called Hunters or Huntresses. One of the main heroines of the series, Ruby, gets her wish to attend the training facility of these warriors of humanity, Beacon Academy, and the series goes on from there. RWBY has a strong fan base and is praised for its good storyline, fun dialogue, and also some more serious moments and themes.   The series can be purchased on DVD and Blue-Ray on Amazon, streams on Netflix, and can also be seen on Crunchy Roll. A strong soundtrack (available on iTunes) rocked quickly to #1 when released, beating out The Hunger Games: Catching Fire soundtrack in the process. The quality shirt features a lone Ruby facing off against a hoard of Grimms, including a never before seen Grimm clinging to Beacon Academy’s tower. Once again, these shirts run a tad bit small, so consider getting a size larger than what you would normally wear.

Hot Chili Salad Pretz

Made by the same folks that produce Pocky, the Hot Chili Salad Pretz’s were the food offering in this month’s box. I’m not familiar with this particular Thai dish, but these things are pretty good! Upon first trying one, I was immediately reminded of any chip or other thing that was described as being ‘pizza flavored’. These sticks did have the consistency of pretzels and were very well seasoned. The savory mix was too complex for me to be able to easily single out anything too unique, but there was definitely an undertone of chicken. As someone who is spicy-sensitive, I would definitely call these spicy (my mouth is still smoldering), but it’s not so bad that I wouldn’t rip open another box and feed my face if there was one nearby. Despite the picture on the box, the sticks contain no meat. To sum it up- these things are great- a unique and sizzling addition to the Haunted box!

Loot Anime Haunted phone charm

The haunted phone charm offering eerily reminisces of the mirror seen in the art poster. While we don’t think that its shiny surface and intricate border hold any kind of supernatural evil, you still might want to keep an eye on it if you should decide to attach it to your key chain or cell phone.

Noragami manga

Once again, Loot Crate is marvelous and offers their subscribers a physical copy of a popular manga series: an exclusive cover art edition of volume one of Noragami! One of my favorite manga, Noragami (which translates literally to, ‘stray god’) follows Yato, god of calamity, in his quest to be noticed and worshiped by humans. This sounds a bit boring, until you actually start to read it. In the world of Noragami, to be forgotten by humans is to no longer exist; as a god, you will disappear. Yato is low on followers; in fact, he has none at all. In his bid to stay relevant, Yato does odd jobs to help humans, leaving his calling card in odd places like bathroom stalls.   Only those in distress can see this contact information, so when a girl known as Hiyori notices him personally and while in no distress, the story takes on a whole new level. Forever changed by an encounter with her later on, the story follows their antics, both serious and light, and their development as characters. A darker past to Yato is slowly revealed and disaster begins to reach for and hurt everyone that he cares for. A truly magnificent story of friendship and the supernatural that will draw you in if you but give it the chance! Read volume one, and then find the other printed copies in most books stores and Amazon. The series is also available as an anime available for sale on Amazon.

The next item is a wonderfully fuzzy and iconic patch from the series Soul Eater. This iron-on features the easily-recognized outline of the namesake of the story: Soul Evans who is the scythe partner of another protagonist named Maka. Within the world of Soul Eater, there are a handful of two types of humans: those who can turn into weapons, and those who can wield them. Both varieties attend a training facility run by Shinigami (Japanese death gods) located in fictional Death City, Nevada, USA. There, they are taught to use their abilities to the end of developing the weapon-humans into their final stage known as Death Scythes. In this final stage, they can finally be wielded as a weapon by the Shinigami themselves.   It’s no easy matter, however, to become a Death Scythe. In order to accomplish this high goal, the pair must harvest the souls of 99 evil humans and 1 witch- in that order. To err in this specific soul-gathering endeavor is to be doomed to start all over again. This popular series is available for purchase as a manga, written and illustrated by Atsushi Okubo, and also as an anime in DVD and Blue-Ray format.

Field Notes, RWBY edition

Connect your good taste in notebooks with your inner otaku by sporting the Loot box’s exclusive RWBY Field Notes edition! This delightfully geeky combination features two of the popular Field Notes pocket-sized notebooks with RWBY covers. One showcases the four members of team RWBY while the other is a plain matte black front with a dragon skull on the back (possibly the aftermath of Ruby’s battle with the beast on the shirt?). When tested with a fountain pen with a broad nib and dark red ink, I found that the paper behaved very well and showed only the very slightest hint of ghosting. These fun note books are everything that a geek could ask for!

Oni Bandana

This fun bandana features a popular character of Japanese folklore, an Oni. Onis are a kind of yokai (supernatural monsters) and can be thought of as being an ogre or troll. They are extremely strong and usually carry around an iron club. In the spring time, the Setsubun festival is held in Japan. This celebration corresponds with the Lunar New Year and is seen as a time to cast off any evil of the previous year and to drive out any evil spirits. For this last end, a ritual known as mamemaki (bean scattering) ceremony is performed to chase out evil spirits. Roasted soybeans (called fortune beans) were either thrown out of the door to the house, or at a family member who is wearing an Oni mask. The family would then shout a traditional phrase, shooing away evil spirits while inviting luck inside and then slam the door. This bandana is made of strong, yet breathable canvas and boasts the devilish face of an Oni with red skin (the other popular skin color is blue). Whether you choose to display this bad boy on a wall or become a monster yourself by folding it into a kerchief, the effect is stunning.

Tokyo Ghoul shot glasses

In terms of being haunted, the last item of this box is probably one of the best examples. Imagine being a normal school boy who lives in a very strange world where horrifying beings called Ghouls exist. They possess super strength; far more than any human can ever hope to stand up to, and that is a very bad thing- a very bad thing indeed because Ghouls need to eat humans to survive. They blend in with and stalk humanity- looking like every other person walking down the street. They contain at least one organ within them that they can manifest into a weapon to use during a fight and they are impervious to sharp objects. Tragic stories and pictures of mutilated corpses- their leftover meals- appear regularly on the nightly news and are followed promptly by warnings never to travel alone. Now imagine that you have accidentally become one of them. What then? Tokyo Ghoul follows the protagonist Ken Kaneki on his journey from normal school boy with a life, friends, and a healthy appetite for hamburger to transformation to Ghoul and a hankering for side o’ human. It also follows the development of Ghoul Kaneki as he discovers the hidden population of Ghouls who wish no harm to humans and the loyalty of his closest human friend who refuses to leave his side, even after realizing what he has become. The shot glasses are a wonderful and appropriate bloody red, with the color deepening to almost black at the top. One glass features the words ‘Tokyo Ghoul’ in kanji and the other depicts Kaneki as a Ghoul with his unique organ weapon. The series itself is available on Amazon as both a manga, written by Sui Ishida and as an anime.

Visit Loot Anime to subscribe or find out more! Save 15% on any subscription plan when you use this link and coupon code HELLOSUBSCRIPTION15.  HELLOSUBSCRIPTION.The box cut-off is on the 27th – see Loot Anime spoilers here. Please note that this box has sold out every month – and some shirt sizes before others.